The Local 913: The Nox Boys

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The Nox Boys started playing together when most of the group’s members were in high school. After discovering their love of garage rock, they began writing songs, making demos, and getting those tapes into the right hands. "We went to go see The Cynics at Mr. Small’s," says singer and guitarist Zack Keim, "And then we handed over the CD to Michael from The Cynics. From there, it just moved forward. We put out our first album, recorded with Jim Diamond in Detroit back when we were in high school."

Though it may be every teenager’s dream to start a band, Keim says it wasn’t always easy. "It was hard in high school. I graduated early and also missed the majority of my senior year because there was just so much stuff happening," says Keim, "I was trying after school to book the band, get us on the radio, we were practicing 2 or 3 days a week. I can smile about it now.

Drummer Sam Berman is smiling about it now, too. "Everyone would kind of look at me and say, 'Really? You don’t want to go to college or anything like that?'" he says, "Everyone seems to be more supportive now when they see we weren’t just a phase."

The band’s debut album dealt with issues surrounding teen angst, but as they’ve matured, both sonically and personally, they’ve realized there’s still plenty to be worked up about. Though “Out of Touch” is not necessarily a political record, it deals with angst in different ways. According to Berman, "The term “out of touch” is used a lot today to describe people who are thinking too far away from what needs to be done to accomplish anything. They’re just looking in the wrong direction. Maybe, in a way, it’s more of a positive thing, like you’re out of touch with society’s expectations of what they want you to be."